Karen Woods

by The Devlin Diaries (Triskelion) [lit]

  Harry nodded. “There are times my dear that an excess of pride can be damaging.”

  “At this point, my pride is one of my few remaining possessions,” Mary Kate replied almost angrily. “I will not abandon it.”

  “Go change into something suitable for riding,” Harry urged. “Go out with Jase and have a good time.”

  “No, I thought that I’d go looking for a job today. When I have an income again, then I’ll buy boots and take advantage of your stables,” Mary Kate replied. “Not before. And that is all there is to it.”

  Harry sighed. He recognized his own stubbornness in the girl. He had to respect her for standing by her guns. But, oh, the girl had an excess of pride.

  Mary Kate met Jase’s eyes. She read only questioning there.

  Jase cleared his throat. “There is a position open in the accounting department at Devlin Enterprises. It is entry level,” he offered. “It’s yours, if you want it.”

  63

  Mary Kate felt herself smile, but she knew the expression didn’t reach her eyes. “Why?”

  “Why what?” Jase asked.

  “Why are you offering me a job?” Mary Kate asked. She didn’t like the fact that she could hear the suspicion and dislike in her voice. She knew they would be hearing it, too. “You don’t even like me. And you’ve made it obvious that you want me to leave here, since you tried to bribe me to leave. So why do you now offer me a job? Seems an awfully sudden about face to me. So why the job offer?”

  Harry looked at his stepson. “What?”

  “I went to her rooms last night after dinner and offered her money to leave,” Jase told his stepfather without apology.

  “Tell me about it, Mary Katherine,” Harry commanded.

  “He offered me a hundred thousand dollars in tax-free cash, on the condition that I leave immediately without a forwarding address.”

  Harry looked first at his daughter, then at his stepson. “I’m listening. Continue. There’s more to the story, I’m certain.”

  “She told me in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t interested,” Jase dismissed. “Even when I upped the ante to a quarter of a million in cash. I thought she was going to blow her stack.”

  “I see,” Harry said, amusement coloring his voice. “Then what?”

  Mary Kate stated, “I told him to leave my room before I really got mad. Then he offered me three hundred thousand instead.”

  Harry laughed. “I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall during that conversation.”

  “I doubt it,” Mary Kate said. “It wasn’t very pleasant.”

  “And I acted like a jerk,” Jase offered.

  “You most certainly did, and that’s putting it mildly,” Mary Kate agreed. “But since you recognize that you’ve done this, it must not be your standard behavior, which means that I’ve been singled out for the honor. I can’t say that I like it. However, I’m willing to entertain an apology.”

  “To entertain, but not to accept?” Jase queried.

  “I’m not sure that I can forgive you,” Mary Kate replied. “I’m not sure that I even want to forgive you. You don’t want me here. You’ve made that abundantly clear. You’ve badmouthed my mother, called my own morals and motives into question, and you’ve pushed me to the point where I lost my temper with you. I don’t like losing my temper. No, Jase, I’m not sure that I can forgive you. I hate it when people push me to violence. It’s not a side of my personality that I really like to acknowledge exists. But you forced my hand with your words and actions. I’m not at all sure I can easily forgive you.”

  64

  Jase sighed. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

  “You should be. And I don’t know you well enough to know what an apology is worth from you,” Mary Kate responded, trying to keep her temper in check without any great degree of success. “However, as I told you last night, if you ever lay hands on me again, you will be looking at the ceiling in a hospital room for quite a long time. Do you read me, Mister Wilton?”

  “Only too clearly, Miss Devlin,” Jase responded with a tight nod. Harry looked at his stepson. “Jase, you struck Mary Katherine?” “No, Harry,” Mary Kate replied, looking at her father. “He made a rather hard pass at me.” Jase grimaced as his stepfather looked at him. “Where did you learn those self defense moves?” “I can, and do, take care of myself,” she replied with an edge of self-satisfaction. “You’ve been warned,

  Jason Alexander Wilton. One warning is all you’ll be getting from me. If you ever touch me again, without express invitation, I will break your arm, or whatever I have to do more serious than that to stop you,” Mary Kate added firmly. “That’s not a threat, just a promise. I won’t be manhandled by you or anyone. I hope that you fully understand that.”

  “Hastings really did a job on you, didn’t he?” Jase asked.

  “Do me one favor. Stop throwing Edward in my face. It’s hard enough to have to live with the fact that I made that mistake without having my nose being constantly rubbed in it. If you want to make me into a lifelong enemy, that’s the guaranteed way of accomplishing the goal,” Mary Kate replied, her control straining.

  Harry sighed. “I do wish you would try to get along with one another.” She looked at her father and smiled at him. “You’re actually very lucky to have people who care about

  you so much. I hope you realize how blessed you are.” Harry took his daughter’s hand. “Let us be your family, Mary Katherine.” “I’m not certain that’s possible. As much as I’d like to have a family, as much as I’ve always wanted a

  father, I’m just not certain this is possible.” “Anything is possible if you want to make it possible, my dear.” “Now that’s naive,” Mary Kate answered. “Extremely naive.”

  Harry smiled. “That’s not an accusation which I’m used to hearing leveled at me.”

  “I would think that it wouldn’t be,” Mary Kate said. “But in this case, it’s accurate. Face it, no one, except maybe you and Audra, has made me welcome. Your housekeeper shuts the door on me and tells me to go around to the staff entrance, thinking that I’m a nanny. Jase, from the first moment we met and even before, judging from the fact that he commissioned an investigation of me, was on the attack. Melissa wasn’t much better. And Thea, well... I don’t know about your sister, Harry. She’s just about as cuddly as a den of

  65

  rattlesnakes. Then this morning, I’m treed by a Doberman, threatened with being shot, and consigned to burning hell. Immediately after that lovely, enriching experience, the local constable warns me to keep my nose clean or he’ll run me in. Now, you ask that I integrate into this family, become part of this community. I don’t know that I can. I don’t even know that I should. And I question my sanity for even wanting to.”

  “I see your point,” Harry allowed with a sigh. “I just wish it could be different.” “So do I. But I didn’t start it,” Mary Kate replied. “I would end it if certain people would let me.” Jase nodded and stated, “Okay, let’s try to move forward. You might as well learn the business, as long

  as you’re staying.”

  “That’s a generous offer. Besides,” Mary Kate offered reasonably, “if I’m working in the office, you can keep an eye on me, right? And if I prove to be less than competent, then you won’t have me becoming a source of embarrassment to the family. Also, you won’t have the problem of my going to work for a competitor.”

  Jase sighed. “Your reasoning is sound. But I don’t doubt your competence. You’re more than capable of handling the job I’ve offered you. If anything, you’re likely to be bored out of your mind with the routineness of the work.” He paused slightly before continuing, “I’m not going to pull any punches. I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you. I don’t want to see Harry hurt. At least with your working at Devlin, I’ll be able to make certain that you aren’t causing trouble elsewhere.”

  “I understand. I don’t like it. But, I understand. Know this, Jase, I don’t
want to hurt him either,” Mary Kate replied. “He’s my father. I’d like an opportunity to get to know him. That’s something that I can do only if I find a job.”

  “So you want the job?” Jase asked. “Has the position been created for me?” she asked pointedly. “No,” he told her. “But there have been several applicants for it.” “So, why haven’t you filled it before now?” Mary Kate asked. Jase shook his head. “The supervisor of the department is…er sometimes difficult…er to work under.

  She’s fired three young women in the past two weeks before they even had an hour put in on the job. Delores

  Teague is demanding.” “I see. And what makes you think that I won’t be the fourth?” “If anyone can stand up to her, I think you can,” Jase offered with a smile. “I have to wonder if that’s a compliment or an insult. Regardless, I’ll think about it and get back to you

  later. I’m not absolutely certain I want to work in Harry’s business. People are bound to think the job was a gift.”

  66

  Jase smiled. “The offer wasn’t charity. If I didn’t know you could handle the work, I wouldn’t have offered the position. Everyone at Devlin pulls his or her own weight. Even Thea, when she audits the books. If anyone fails to pull their own weight, they don’t work at Devlin for long. You’ll serve out the usual one month probationary term the same as anyone else. No favors given or asked. One mistake and you’re out. You’ll work for minimum wage and without benefits until after your probationary period has elapsed. This is our standard procedure.”

  Mary Kate nodded. “Fine, as long as I’m not receiving special favors. I accept the position. When do I

  start?” “Nine tomorrow?” Harry asked with a smile. “We have things to do today.” “Fine. Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to my room and get ready for the day.”

  * * * “She is your daughter through and through, isn’t she?” Jase asked after Mary Kate had left. “With some of her mother’s better traits thrown in,” Harry replied. Jase looked at his stepfather carefully. Harry had been the only father that Missy had really ever known.

  Harry had been good to a high school aged stepson whom he had taken on.

  The thing was Jase remembered Nancy. He did remember the scandal of Peter Filson’s death. And he remembered Audra leaving him and Melissa with their grandmother for a week so that Audra could sit at Harry’s bedside after the crash that had nearly taken Harry’s life twenty-five years before. Jase didn’t want to see Harry ever go through the same sort of emotional pain again. Having her here was bound to open old wounds.

  “I only hope that she doesn’t have some of her mother’s worse traits,” Jase replied after a long pause. “You be careful with that girl. As far as I am concerned, those blood tests are a formality. She’s my daughter. I don’t want to have to be placed in a position of choosing between the two of you.”

  Jase absorbed that. He knew he had no choice but to try to get along with Mary Katherine. Harry’s health was too fragile for Jase to put Harry into the position where Harry had to choose between his daughter -- if she was his daughter -- and his stepson. “Why did she wait to come forward until now, Harry?”

  “You don’t know the whole story, Jase, so don’t judge the situation.” “So tell me. I want to understand.” “I wish I could. There are still too many unanswered questions in my own mind,” Harry replied.

  “There’s still too much that doesn’t make sense. Too much which may never make sense.” “Harry.” “Don’t ask too many questions, Jase. I suspect I won’t like the answers.”

  67

  “That’s not like you, Harry. I’ve never known you to want to hide from anything.”

  “Maybe not.” he dismissed. “Now fill me in on the progress of our acquisition of Richter.”

  “I’m just sorry I leave for my month of summer active duty at the end of the week. Maybe if I could stay around during the next two weeks, I’d be able to convince Richter.”

  “I doubt it, Jase. Norman is a lot like me. It will take him some time to come around. Whether you’re here or not, will not make that much of a difference until he’s had some time to mull this over. We’ve got time. He doesn’t. Still, if he won’t take the offer, we can always acquire the assets from the bank when they call in his notes.”

  Jase nodded. “I wish...”

  Their conversation was cut short by an anguished scream. Jase looked around, then looked up, and noticed that Mary Kate’s balcony door was open. Harry’s eyes followed Jase’s.

  68

  Chapter Eight

  Jason burst into Mary Kate’s suite and into her bedroom without knocking. There she stood, tears welling in her eyes, staring in horror at the top of the dressing table, at the pieces of what had been her grandmother’s string of pearls. Someone had cut the string in several places, and had left the pearl necklace laying in pieces on her dresser. The pieces were laid out to spell the command, ‘Go!’

  On the mirror above the dresser was written in childish printing and bright red lipstick, “Go back to Illinois!”

  Taking one look at the room, Jason said, “Missy has to do something with that child of hers. This is entirely too much.”

  Harry came into the room.

  “Just stay calm,” Mary Kate advised, as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “There was no permanent damage done. It just shocked me. I’m sorry to have frightened you.”

  Harry looked at his daughter. “Excuse me, I have a little boy to spank.”

  Mary Kate reached out and took her father’s arm. “No, please. He’s just reacting to the tension level in the house. I’m the obvious target. That’s understandable. He feels threatened. And he took action. The wrong action. But he showed initiative. That’s something that you shouldn’t squelch, even though it has to be redirected.”

  Jason looked at her. “That’s quite an assessment from someone who has never even met the boy. He was in bed long before dinner time last evening.”

  “And whose fault is that? Certain people have done everything in their power to isolate the boy from me as though I were contagious,” Mary Kate said unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice. “I can’t believe that the boy normally goes to bed by eight in the evening.”

  “Not normally, no,” Jason admitted.

  She continued, “As for my assessment, I do know children. He’s Melissa’s son, so he can’t be more than five or six. Young children are very sensitive to changes in their environment.”

  “Even so,” Harry replied. “That doesn’t excuse this.”

  “No. I didn’t make excuses for him. He must be made to realize that what he did was wrong. Still, you have to admit that he shows initiative and a large amount of invention in his vindictiveness. He’s obviously an exceptionally bright boy. But paddling him will only reinforce his developing hatred and fear of me. That isn’t something we really want to do, not if we’re all to somehow merge together into any kind of family unit. Let me handle this, please.”

  69

  “Jaime is just three,” Missy replied from the doorway. “But he should know better. He knows that he is not to go into other people’s rooms.”

  “Three?” Mary Kate replied on a sigh. “Exceptionally gifted... He must keep you on your toes.”

  Missy smiled softly. “He does.” Then Missy assured Mary Kate, “I’m very sorry about this. He’ll be punished.”

  “Please, may I talk with the boy?” Mary Kate asked . “Will you let me have a chance at straightening this out before more damage can be done? Please? I really don’t want him to hate me. There’s enough hatred in this house without adding to it.”

  “I suppose that I owe you that courtesy,” Missy replied just before she left the doorway.

  “I’ll need the name of a good jeweler,” Mary Kate told her father with a tightness in her voice. “I’m almost certain they can be restrung.”

  Harry looked at his daughter. “I’ll have them restrung for you. Those were Brigid’s, were
n’t they?”

  “Grandmother O’Brien owned the necklace. It’s the only link with the past that I’ve ever had,” she said. “Mother gave me the necklace when I took my degree... If I hadn’t fallen into the habit of keeping the necklace in my safe deposit box, it would have been lost in the fire as well. This was one of the two good pieces of jewelry that Mother had, the necklace and her engagement and wedding rings. She never took the rings off, not until the last when her fingers were so thin that she couldn’t keep them on. If I hadn’t kept them in the bank box, they would have been lost, too,” Mary Kate said distractedly, ramblingly, as tears welled up in her eyes.

  Mary Kate blinked away the tears as she forced herself to some semblance of outward calm. She brought out a small worn velvet ring box from a dresser drawer and opened it. She looked at the engagement and wedding rings her mother had worn.

  “We had some really tough times when I was growing up. There was never enough money. She often thought about selling the diamond or the pearls, but she could never bring herself to do either. She said that it would be like cutting off a piece of herself. Mother told me that she didn’t want to be buried with them on her finger. She wanted me to have the rings, as an heirloom. These and the necklace are the only things of hers that I have left, and I suppose the rings should really be returned to you.”

  Jason watched Mary Kate’s distress. He had no doubt that it was real. Nancy was ill at the end? She had said that last night. He remembered Nancy as a vivacious woman. He couldn’t even imagine her in the shape that Mary Kate had described.

  “Nancy’s rings should stay with you,” Harry told her with pain in his voice. “I want you to have them.”

  She shook her head. “I shouldn’t have come here. All I’m doing is causing pain all the way around,” Mary Kate said tightly. “I’m sorry, Father. Please forgive me.”

  70

  Harry swallowed with difficulty. It was the first time that she had addressed him by their relationship. “Mary Katherine,” he began.

  Missy stood at the door with a small, too serious, young boy at her side. “This is Jaime.” Jaime was a small framed, sturdy looking, towheaded boy with green eyes. He was just barely beyond the baby-ish look of toddlers.